Monday, August 12, 2013

Sports never lie
outside of world affairs, and in the case of Mandate Palestine, outside the
Zionist goal of a Jewish state, Arab-Palestinian national consciousness, and
the British colonizing efforts. During the interwar period, the popularity of
sports was on the rise throughout the globe, and the continued colonizing
efforts were exporting sports to all corners of the globe. Palestine, after
World War I had been brought under British control and sports – specifically
soccer for this paper - developed under the contradicting goals of the Mandate,
and the clashing nationalisms of Jews and Arab-Palestinians. Soccer developed
alongside the quasi-nation building occurring in Palestine, as each community
sought to establish hegemony over the political economy of the region. At first
the British sought to establish soccer as an apolitical sphere of cooperation
for the communities, but as infrastructure increased, Jewish and
Arab-Palestinians aims came to a showdown on the soccer pitch.

The Great War led
to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, as well as cataclysmic damage to the
region. Following with Pres. Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the Paris Peace
Conference included the creation of a League of Nations. Charged with
“promot[ing] international co-operation and to achieve international peace and
security,”[1]
the League of Nations was created after the war. Included in the Covenant of
the League of Nations was Article 22, which stated, those “colonies and
territories which as consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the
sovereignty of the State which formerly governed them” would be “entrusted to
advanced nations” and their “tutelage should be exercised by them as
Mandatories on behalf of the League.”[2]
Under these auspices, Britain came under direct control of Palestine, which for
the first time had become an autonomously functioning administrative unit.

The parameters of
the Mandate Period in Palestine must be defined in order to understand the
power dynamics under which sports would develop for Arab-Palestinians and
Zionist-Jewish communities. Though the “British encouraged each community to
organize its own political affairs within the framework of the mandate,” the
Zionist camp had a clear goal in mind and was more willing to work within the
presets.[3]
Arab-Palestinians were in clear opposition to the mandate and the increasing
presence of Jews in the region. Britain had also promised the region to the
Zionists with the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration, and when
institutions were established, Zionists always had a clear favor in them. Sports
would develop in Palestine under the British’s continuing colonizing efforts,
Zionists goal of a Jewish state, and Arab-Palestinians resistance to foreign
intruders.

Kurrat al-Qadam as
it is known in the Arab world, arrived to Palestine in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. In the late Ottoman Empire, it was held
under heavy suspicion, due to its colonizing functions, however, this changed
after the liberalization that occurred after the 1908 Revolution. The first
soccer club in Palestine was founded in Jerusalem in 1909, and in the same year
they played against the American University in Beirut and won.[4]
During the Mandate period, soccer’s popularity was on the rise, and the British
utilized the sport in order to co-opt local elites and inculcate British values
on the local populations.[5]
The popularity of soccer was also on the rise due to the increased presence of
British soldiers, and Jewish immigrants from Europe in Palestine. Though soccer
carried a colonizing etiquette local populations adopted the sport as a process
of modernization.

The British
provided a reference to modernity and the growing discourse of care of the
body, however Arab-Palestinians adopted soccer as an anti-colonial struggle.
The daily newspaper Filastin,
constructed the discourse, of a once strong Arab that dedicated himself to
sports – as the rhetoric was also very masculine – and since had stopped
allowing foreign powers to penetrate his land. This discourse of emasculation
provided the Arab-Palestinian population a course of action through sports to
cure their inferiority in comparison to the British.[6]The new strong Arab would be able to resist
further British influence, and begin to strengthen himself for the war against
the also emerging Zionist threat. Soccer became a sphere infiltrated by the
developing Arab-Palestinian nationalism.

Similar discourse
can be found with the Zionist’s adoption of sport. Zionism emphasized the
formation of the “New Jew” in contrast to the Diaspora Jew, which had been made
weak by the anti-Semite conditions in Europe, and the rabbinical control of
life. “The creation of the New Jew would serve as the idealized symbol of
national renewal,” and sport would be a way to create a new muscular Jew able
to withstand the harsh conditions of settling the new homeland.[7]
The “New Jew” would also, like with Arab-Palestinian discourse, be preparing
for the imminent war in Palestine. Sport also became a measuring stick for a
movement’s cohesion and unity, and Zionists never separated sports from their
nation building enterprise.

Before the
creation of the Palestinian Football Association in 1928, the British hoped
soccer would be a sphere of cooperation between the Zionist-Jewish and
Arab-Palestinian communities. The al-Zahra League was the first soccer league
founded in Palestine which included Jewish, Arab-Palestinian, and British
soccer teams.[8]
A railroad team in the league was comprised of both Jews and Arab-Palestinians.[9] As
the league grew, teams from Europe and other Arab countries traveled to Palestine
to play local teams. Ha-Koach Vienna, which came to Palestine in 1924,
destroyed local teams – in one instance winning 11-2 – and their heightened
level of play brought Arab-Palestinian and Jewish leaders together to discuss
establishing a local soccer league.[10]

During this time
the 12th Zionist Congress also established the Maccabi World Union
in order to “foster physical education, the belief of the Jewish heritage and
the Jewish nation and to work actively for the rebuilding of our country.”[11]
This organization would solely cater to the Jewish people and in Palestine
would work towards the creation of a Jewish-only Olympics. Though the Maccabi
was founded in the 12th Zionist Congress, it attempted to retain an
apolitical image, and therefore appealed to the Jews in the Diaspora more. In
Palestine, the Histadrut – labor union that viewed the worker as the vanguard
in settling Palestine – established the Hapoel soccer club. Initially created
to work within the Maccabi framework, in 1926 it broke off.[12]
This division between the Histadrut and the World Maccabi Union coincided with
the growing divisions between the Jewish Agency in Palestine and the World
Zionist Organization in London. The religious and revisionist parties also
established their own teams at this time, Elizar corresponding to the former
and Beitar to the latter. As Jewish-Zionist infrastructure in Palestine was
growing, so was their soccer clubs, and the Arab-Palestinian community was
falling behind.

The Palestinian
Football Association was founded in 1928 under the leadership of Josef
Yekutieli, the leader of the Maccabi. Talks for the league had begun in 1924,
when Yekutieli had attempted to gain recognition by the International Amateur
Athletic Federation but was denied. In an effort to integrate the various
Jewish, British and Arab-Palestinian soccer clubs in a single league he
traveled to Egypt where he met with a FIFA official and with at first the help
of Hapoel and later Arab-Palestinian teams – no organization like the Maccabi nor
the Histadrut existed for the Arab-Palestinian community – founded the PFA. Due
to FIFA bylaws the PFA would have to be all-inclusive if it sought official
recognition by FIFA.[13]
The PFA since its inception was dominated by “Zionists officials and players…on
all levels,” greatly frustrating Arab-Palestinian soccer clubs.[14]
Many times the blue and white Zionist flag was flown in stadiums, and Arab
soccer clubs faced unfair refereeing practices on the field. The PFA was an
extension of Zionist “goals of creating and legitimizing Zionist claims to
Palestine,” and the PFA would “represent Palestine as Jewish, both regionally
and internationally.”[15]

Resistance to the
PFA by Arab-Palestinian soccer clubs began almost immediately after its
genesis. The first Arab-Palestinian clubs began to leave in 1929 after
increased hostility in the league due to the 1929 Revolts. The sports movement
became increasingly “connected to the national movement in the country which
was struggling against the Zionists expansion in Palestine.”[16]
The Filastin began to run columns
with the idea of establishing a formal, rival Arab-Palestinian soccer league,
as FIFA in the same year recognized the PFA as the official representative of
Palestine.[17]
In 1934, Arab-Palestinians finally established the General Palestinian Sports
Association (known as the Arab-Palestinian Sports Association) finally breaking
all ties with Jewish soccer, and consolidating their nationalist struggle on
the soccer pitch with a formal league.

The founding of
the PFA marks a turning point in the history of soccer in Palestine. The
British had hoped the sport would remain apolitical, and serve as a unifying
activity between all communities, as they sought to maintain cultural hegemony
over the region. This became increasingly difficult as the Arab-Palestinian
nationalist struggle was coming of age with the incipient threat of Zionist
immigration. Zionists, in their fervor for establishing quasi-state
institutions to continue their settlement goal, extended their strivings to the
field of soccer, and with the official recognition by FIFA, now had official
control of the sport in Palestine. Soccer had been politicized and was in the
process of being institutionalized, and the soccer stadium was now inhabited by
two fandoms, ready to score nationalist goals.

In response to the PFA, in 1934 the General
Palestinian Sports Federation was created, as an only Arab league. “Inspired by
political motives, Arab teams’ preferences subsequently moved from the
Palestinian Football Association in favor of the new Arab organization.”[18]
Nationalist and militaristic symbols were prevalent in the league as the Arab
flag was displayed at many games, and many teams were named after “renowned
Muslim and Arab military commanders.”[19]
By this time soccer was becoming a major sport in the region, and the Filastin began covering the sport more
closely, as the number of fans also increased. In 1935, the APSA (as the
Federation came to be known) in response to the second Maccabian games held in
Palestine, held a scouting exhibition for the “direct protest of Zionist
immigration, the British Mandate, and the celebration of Arab brotherhood.”[20]
This Arab-Palestinian federation was short lived due to the 1936 Palestinian
Revolt. “The affinity between the emerging sporting movement and the national
movement was regarded with suspicion” by the British and after the Great Revolt
the league became defunct. The retaliation of the British against the APSA
coincided with the massive retaliation the entire Arab-Palestinian community
faced after the revolt. After 1939, Arab-Palestinian soccer clubs no longer had
any institutional framework for their athletes and clubs – some even looked to
rejoin the PFA.[21]

Zionist-Jewish
sports during the 1930’s were heavily backed by different Zionist organizations
including the Jewish Agency, World Zionist Organization, Jewish National Fund,
Histadrut and the Maccabi.[22]
These quasi-state institutions in Palestine invested heavily in sports; an
example being the holding of the Maccabian Games in Palestine in 1932 and 1935.
The Jewish-only Olympics “stirred Jewish nationalism and provided a means of
introducing Jews to the future homeland,” and their militaristic fervor was
also clearly portrayed.[23]
The games also provided a practical advantage to the Zionist cause by allowing
those athletes and Jewish spectators to remain in Palestine, circumventing
British immigration restrictions. [24]
During this time also, immigrants from the 3rd and 4th
aliyot were arriving to Palestine hailing from Central Europe, were soccer was
a major sport. The Histadrut, which in many cases was in charge of immigrant
absorption processes, funneled many immigrants to the Hapoel soccer club.[25]The absence of the APSA also benefitted the
Jewish-Zionist soccer community as they increased their games against teams
from abroad. Sports were flourishing for the Jewish-Zionist community entering
into the 1940’s as they increased their advantage in Palestine vis-à-vis the
Arab-Palestinian community.

Palestine entered
the 1940’s with a charged atmosphere. In 1937 the Peel Commission Report stated
that, as “each community grows, moreover, the rivalry between them deepens,”
and the once believed acquiescence to the Balfour Declaration by the indigenous
population had never been realized.[26]
Talks about partitioning Palestine were also on the rise, as cohabitation
between the two communities seemed impossible. Persecution of Jews in Europe
and their difficulty in entering Palestine due to British immigration controls
was also creating rifts between the Zionists and the British. The looming
conflict spilled out onto the soccer pitch as Arab-Palestinians made a final
struggle for a competing soccer league recognized by FIFA.

As the Zionist
controlled PFA sought to portray itself as the true representative of
Palestinian soccer, talks of reestablishing the defunct APSA had begun in the
1940’s. Sport clubs, especially boxing, had survived the late 30’s and began
establishing regional federations.[27]
In 1944 the Egyptian army team “refused to visit Palestine unless the Arab
clubs also organized a team to play against them,” providing the final impetus
for the reinstatement of the APSA.[28]
Founded again in 1944 the APSA would be an only-Arab league, tasked with
demonstrating the organization and quality of Arab-Palestinian sports. The
restituted league had clear nationalist undercurrents as many political parties
had soccer teams in the league, many athletes were involved with activism, and
the league never played on November 2nd – the day the Balfour
Declaration had been issued in 1917.[29]
The league was also challenging the PFA as the official representative of
Palestinian soccer, and in 1945 the APSA petitioned FIFA to become a recognized
federation of Palestine.

The petition by
the APSA for recognition by FIFA was sent in 1945, as the PFA blocked many
soccer games between APSA teams and national teams.[30]
The “membership application to FIFA was discussed at an international
conference in Luxemburg in August 1946,” however it was denied on the grounds
that only one federation could represent a nation, “representing a clear bias
in the organization [FIFA] towards the PFA.”[31]
During this time the Filastin had
created a daily sports column, tying sports to the nationalist cause and the
strengthening of the Arab-Palestinians through sports. Palestine faced imminent
war in the years 1947-48, and many athletes began shelving sports for the sake
of their country.[32] A
day before the partition vote in the United Nations, the Filastin ran an
article stating:

Our aim is to make
Palestine Arab forever, and that’s what every Arab in this land with grace and importance. None of this will happen
unless all of us become strong and healthy…by the way of sport.[33]

After the 1948 war and the creation of Israel, alongside the
expulsion of nearly 750,000 Palestinians, all Arab-Palestinian sport
infrastructures were destroyed.

Soccer’s beauty
captivated the populations of Palestine during the Mandate period, and they
utilized its infrastructural capacity to establish hegemony over the region.
Every game became a showdown of nations and their people, every goal a step
closer to the larger scheme of each team. Soccer was enmeshed in the
development occurring in Palestine, as it is intertwined in every development
in the 20th century. The Historian must not think of sports as an
apolitical sphere, separate from the progress occurring, in this case in
Mandate Palestine. Instead it is best to think of soccer like Eric Hobsbwam so
beautifully put it, “The imagined community of millions seems more real as a
team of eleven named people.”[34]

[33]
Sorek, Arab Soccer in a Jewish State,
30 he gets from Filastin day before
UN Partition Vote

[34]
Tamir Sorek, “Palestinian Nationalism Has Left The Field: A Shortened History
of Arab Soccer in Israel,” International
Journal of the Middle East Vol. 35 (2003): 417… he gets from Eric Hobsbwam,
Nations and Nationalism since 1780
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 143

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HISTORY OF PALESTINE SPORTS

Established in November 2009, this blog aims to introduce readers to the developments of sports in Palestine. HPS is concerned about highlighting and documenting Palestinian sports since the first decade of the 20th century to the present date, which will require contributions from all researchers and historians.For information, please contact;Issam Khalidiiskhalidi55@hotmail.com

Issam Khalidi, an independent scholar, lives in Monterey CA, US. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine. Received his PhD in 1987 from the Institute of Physical Culture, Moscow, Russia.

Articles and opinions published on this blog reflect the views of their authors.